2019年案例：米高梅诉格罗斯特案

2019年案例：米高梅诉格罗斯特案

The Case of MGM v. Grokster

The Supreme Court Finally Steps Into The Fray Between Online File Swappers And The Major Movie And Recording Studios：

The Case of MGM v. Grokster

By JULIE HILDEN

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2019

On March 29, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., a closely-watched case involving peer-to-peer file sharing - a process in which people send or receive music or movies over the Internet.

The most famous peer-to-peer file sharing site was, of course, Napster. However, after a number of rounds of litigation, Napster has now been transformed into a site that, for a monthly payment, allows only legal downloads of music （that is, downloads of copyright music for which a license has been granted）. Other sites, however, continue to offer peer-to-peer file sharing software despite the fact that one of its uses is to pirate copyrighted music and movies - and Grokster is one such site.

The Court's ultimate decision in MGM v. Grokster is very likely to be one of the landmarks of this term.

The Plaintiffs, the Defendants, and the Allegations in the Case

The list of plaintiffs in the case is a virtual "Who's Who" of influential Hollywood record and film companies. The defendants in the case are Grokster and StreamCast Networks - which provide software that allows peer-to-peer file sharing of music and movies on personal computers.

According to the plaintiffs, over 90% of the files that are actually exchanged using the software consist of copyrighted material that the swapper - that is, the person who makes files available for download on his or her computer - has no right to distribute. For this reason, the plaintiffs - who say they own the lion's share of the copyrights at issue - seek whopping damages against Grokster and StreamCast.

Their theory of liability holds that Grokster and StreamCast are

responsible for the software users' copyright infringement - either because

they contribute to users' infringement, or because the infringement is, in effect, their own. These two varieties of infringement are called "contributory" and "vicarious" infringement, respectively.

Will the Sony BetamaxCase Favor Defendants？

The last Supreme Court decision that seems closely analogous to this one was Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios Inc. - which was decided in 1984. It held that sellers of VCRs were not liable for users' copyright infringement - rejecting the claim that selling VCRs amounted to contributory infringement.

That holding, at first glance, sounds pretty good for the defendants in

the MGM v. Grokster case： Like VCR makers, they, too, provide a means that enables copyright infringement on the part of some users, but not of all users. They, too, have created a new technology with a range of different uses, some legal and some illegal.

So shouldn't they, too, be off the hook - based on the Sony precedent？

The problem is, there's a big difference between VCRs and the software at issue here. At the time Sony was decided, the Court noted, the average

American's use of his or her VCR was for "time-shifting" - that is, to record favorite television programs to be seen at a more convenient time. In short, VCRs were sort of like an old-time TiVo.

"Time-shifting" is a classic instance of "fair use" exempt from the copyright law. And in any event, as the Court pointed out, it would not seem

to cause the typical kind of damages one sees in a copyright infringement case：lost profits from potential future legal sale of the copyrighted material.

In sum, the most common use of the VCR, according to the Supreme Court,

was a legal one： time-shifting favorite television shows. In contrast, the average - indeed, the overwhelmingly likely - use of the software at issue in MGM v. Grokster is an illegal one： pirating copyrighted music and movies, which constitutes copyright infringement.

Indeed, the evidence shows that nine out of ten users use Grokster this way. （It is worth noting, though, that users whose use is perfectly legal actually do exist： Grokster offered the court affidavits from users who